Page 50 of The Pretty Savage

"I got you, Bambi. I got you."

Her hands pressed against my chest, her face burrowing into the crook of my neck, as if she was trying to hide herself.

"Please," she mumbled one more time. "Please help me."

Her voice broke, a thousand emotions lacing those simple words, and the urge to protect her rose, to destroy anyone and anything that dared to wrong her. That dared to give her nightmares that would make her tremble and beg.

"I'm here, Vega," I whispered, pressing my lips to her clammy forehead. "No one will get to you. You're safe."

Her breathing was labored, and no matter how much I tried to soothe her and how much I rubbed my hands over her shoulders, over her neck, her back, she still kept on shaking. I pulled myself up, trying to get the blankets over her, when her arms snuck around my neck, holding me tightly to her, making it difficult to get up.

"Don't leave me!" she yelled out, clinging to me like a spider monkey.

"I'm not leaving," I murmured, rubbing her back. "I'm here, Vega. You're okay now. You're safe." I reminded myself of the pet parrot Jax had a couple of years ago that only knew a couple of words and kept repeating them, but I had no idea what else to say.

I had no idea what her nightmare was about, and some sick, primal part of me liked the fact that she clung to me. I loved her body pressed to mine, seeking comfort in my embrace. But when I looked down at her, trying to figure out the best way to calm her down, her eyes were open, staring up at me.

There was no anger in them, no hatred, not the viciousness I was so used to from her. Instead, they were filled with a longing I could recognize. The need to have someone to call your own. To have someone that would care when you couldn't care for yourself.

"You're here," she whispered, as if she was afraid that speaking any louder would make me disappear. "You look the same in my dreams," Vega stated, and within seconds I realized she must have thought she was dreaming. "But you don't hate me in my dreams." She frowned and that little statement felt like a gunshot straight through my heart.

How could I explain to her that I needed her and also hated the fact that I needed her? That whatever spell she cast on me was working and I didn't want to let go.

"I don't hate you," I said, saying the first truthful thing tonight. "I could never hate you."

"You're lying." She smiled sadly. "You'll hate me when you find out."

"Find out what?" I frowned, looking at her, but her eyes were already closed, her limbs relaxed. "Vega," I murmured against her ear, hoping she would answer. "Find out what?"

"Everything," she answered sleepily, leaving me all alone once again, pondering over her words.

But instead of trying to wake her up, I managed to pull the blankets over us, holding her tightly as she slept, burying my nose into her hair and pretending we weren't two people who had death hanging above their heads, but two individuals that cared for each other.

And as her soft breaths tickled my throat, I dared myself to close my eyes and drift off for the first time in days, holding her as if my life depended on it.

18

VEGA

The first thing I noticed as my mind stirred awake, detaching from the dark abyss of my dreams, was the warmth enveloping me, holding me tightly. The second was a hard body behind me and the strong arms wrapped around my middle.

Hazy memories flickered through my head as my eyes blinked, trying to shake off the drowsiness still clinging to me after the long night of sleep. I couldn't remember the last time I slept this well. My limbs were heavy, my head well-rested for the first time in I didn't even know how long, and I fought against the urge to assign this peaceful feeling to the person lying behind me, his breath tickling my neck with every new exhale.

I knew it was Adrian even without turning around. I thought I had dreamed of him, that he had somehow found a way into my dreams last night when the nightmares shook my soul, reminding me of the past. But he was really here, and I had no idea why.

He stirred in his sleep, burying his face in the crook of my neck while his arms tightened around my middle, making me wince when they pressed against the bruises on my ribs. But I didn't dare move.

It would've been easy, killing him right now, freeing this world from one monster, but… But I couldn't do it. For whatever reason, I couldn't fucking do it, and I had no idea if I hated the idea of him here or if I wanted it more than anything. I was terrified that the moment I let those thoughts fester in my mind I would completely forget why I was here and what it was I was sent to do.

And my entire existence depended on this mission.

My entire future depended on finding information on Adrian and his family, otherwise I knew I wouldn't have any future.

The Schatten wasn't exactly the place I wanted to go back to, but at least it was the hell I knew. It held familiarity in those walls back at the compound, and in the eyes of the people that frequented it. I knew Heinrich and the way he operated, but Adrian Zylla… I had no idea who he was.

Everything he had shown me thus far had been nothing but monstrous and the way he spoke to me as if I was nothing told me I couldn't trust him. If anything, he had the power to destroy me from the inside out. The Schatten could kill me, make me disappear, but they couldn't take a hold of my soul and squeeze it in their hands. They couldn't destroy the very essence of my being, but he could.

His palm landed on a bare patch of my skin, right at the bottom of my stomach, and his thumb started circling around, awakening my body in the way only he could. I had never had this kind of reaction to any other man. I’d never been able to turn off my mind long enough to forget where I was and who was in front of me, but he unraveled me, pulled out the needy parts of me that I desperately hid from everyone else, because I knew they could use them against me.

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